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Legend has it that ice tea was first introduced during the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 because of an unusual heat wave that summer.
As the global trend of ice tea consumption gathers steam (it used to be a purely American phenomenon with 75% of all ice tea consumed in the US), more questions emerge regarding whether the benefits of regular tea consumption translate to drinking ice tea.

Another study in the recent wave of tea research indicates that green tea may protect the skin against ultraviolet radiation.
Green tea is known to contain biologically active compounds called polyphenols that are thought to undo the damage caused by free-radicals and catechins seem to be the particularly beneficial kind of polyphenols.

Brazil

Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer responsible for nearly 40% of the world’s coffee in any given year, about 3 times the annual production of the second largest producer, Vietnam. Thus, Brazilian production affects coffee prices in a major way.
While 2011 was an “off” year for Brazil with an estimated 49 million bags of coffee, it was still the highest “off” year on record.

Colombia

Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers has said that it expects the country’s coffee crop yield to be significantly lower next year. The organization’s c.e.o. Luis Munoz said the pessimistic forecast comes as a result of excessive rains that severely affected this year’s crops.
Moreover, the county’s industry is not “out of the water” yet: the infamous La Niña ocean-atmosphere phenomenon is expected to last at least through the first quarter of 2012 causing further rainstorms.

US

IBISWorld, the largest coffee industry research firm in the US, projects that industry revenues will grow at an annual rate of 0.7% over the next five years and will reach US$9.1 billion in 2016. At the same time, lower coffee bean prices over the next few years will surely mean lower industry costs and result in higher profit margins.
IBISWorld estimates that the world price of coffee will decline at an average annual rate of 0.4% all the way through 2016. In 2011, coffee imports are likely to grow by 50.9% to $1.9 billion. Export volumes in 2011 are expected to increase by 24.7% to $1.1 billion and account for 12.0% of the industry’s total revenue.

Czech Republic

Miko, the Euronext Brussels listed specialist in coffee service and plastic packaging, has announced its takeover of the company Excellent Plzen, located in the Czech Republic.
Excellent Plzen specializes in providing fairtrade products, mainly coffee and tea, to a commercial clientele. The company has decent commercial contacts, but was lacking a technical service to support its further expansion.

The 4C Association has graduated to full membership status in the ISEAL Alliance, the global association for social and environmental standards setting organizations. The full membership was confirmed by a decision of the ISEAL Board of Directors during its meeting on September 12.
The 4C Association had already joined ISEAL as associate member in 2009. To be eligible for full ISEAL membership, the 4C Association had to undergo an independent external evaluation to demonstrate full compliance with ISEAL´s Impacts Code and Assurance Code.

Ivory Coast

Exports of coffee beans from Ivory Coast fell by 63% in October, according to data from the country’s export hub of Abidjan.
Shipments from the port city reportedly fell to 2,710 metric tons, as compared with 7,313 tons in 2010. Ivory Coast is mostly a supplier of Robusta coffee beans, a variety mainly used in instant coffee and espresso. In spite of this, exports of soluble coffee produced in the Ivory Coast rose from 380 tons in 2010 to 492 tons this year.

India

According to commerce ministry estimates, coffee prices for the crop year 2011-2012 should remain stable. This trend is mainly attributable to generally sluggish production and a constantly increasing consumption over the last three years.
Brazil is expected to have an off-year with some 47.2 million bags said additional secretary in the Commerce Ministry Vijay Laxmi Joshi at the 53rd annual coffee conference of Karnataka Planters Association and United Planters Association of South India (KPA-Upasi)

Thailand

Doi Chaang coffee was selected as the 3rd place winner in the One Village One Brand contest recently held by the APEC-Intellectual Property Rights Expert Group in South Korea.
The competition conducted to promote intellectual property rights awareness in various countries and encourage businesses to develop their own brands to help increase the value of their products promises assistance from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to develop the brands of the top two winners. The declared winner was bamboo from China and the 2nd place went to a beverage from Chile.